Whether you are half of a co-teaching team or a more traditional lead guide and an assistant, you are subject to the vagaries of working closely with another adult in a high-stakes and often, high-stress position. Additionally, many teachers do not have the autonomy to choose each other, so you are essential working in what…
Montessori schools attract staff that are committed to respectful interactions with children, and yet sometimes, those same skills fail to translate into effective communication between adults. As guides, we must establish a positive work climate by learning to reach parents and work well with colleagues, a skill set often absent in our formal training. …
Every aspect of your school is running smoothly and you have all the resources you need for staff development . . . said no school leader ever. Finding the time and resources to train school staff is an arduous and sometimes thankless job, yet one that I find intriguing. Staff members are schools…
Delivering a quality Montessori experience for your students is a lot of work. You prepare and maintain an environment and curriculum that meets every child’s needs, you guide children to uphold their part of a community agreement, you report student progress to parents and administrators: the job of a Montessori guide can be overwhelming and…
It’s interesting to me that we rarely talk about sleep as is related to learning other than to notice when a student is cranky and indicates they didn’t get enough, or a parent asks how to get their child down at night, or a student falls asleep while working. What I hadn’t known until recently…
Believing that you can accomplish something is a critical part of doing it. If you don’t believe you can do something, then you are very unlikely to actually do it. As Henry Ford put it, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re RIGHT!” Yes I Can IS a Growth Mindset …
Excitement as is related to learning is defined as a heightened state of physiological arousal exemplified by an increased heart rate and blood pressure, and higher emotional and attention. What many educators are not as aware of is how excitement can be harnessed to accelerate learning, and how Montessori educators have built-in mechanisms…
When a teacher demonstrates how to do a procedural task, like a math problem, going through the sequence of steps to the solution, this is known as a worked example. Worked Examples Work Our daughter learned to play the guitar primarily from watching Youtube videos! This is a perfect example of how…
Visualization relies on humans unique ability to harness their imagination and create a representation of an abstract idea. There are many permutations of visualization, yet I’m going to focus in on the strategies known to enhance learning. Visualization is a Spatial Representation External visualizations help learners process information. Think about how quickly learners…
Sometimes the process of learning involves unlearning mistaken understandings and correcting misconceptions. Undoing Errors May be Less Necessary in Montessori Montessori environments are unique learning places in which to make mistakes. Our youngest learners rely on hands-on didactic materials in which they gain impressions of concepts including identifying mistakes when the error…